A Very Dark New Year's
by The Pudding Fiend
Summary: A little early, but here's a New Year's fic. Hei is exhausted after a week of non-stop missions and only wants some sleep. Unfortunately, on New Year's Eve, sleep is the last thing he's going to get.


Hey guys. I'm seriously stuck on my Tortall fic, so it might be a while before the next chapter is put up. Then again, I don't think many people are reading it anyways, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Anyhow, enough of my griping. Here's an early Darker than Black New Years fic.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Darker than Black. But, I got the DVD after a wild goose chase! YAYS! HEI!

Hei groaned and rolled his shoulder. Normally small injuries like a dislocated shoulder didn't bother him, but it had been a _long_ week. The Black Reaper had been running about from mission to mission all week; killing that, stealing this, running from the police…it went on and on.

He had gotten about 3 square hours of sleep this week and he was _not_ happy. It didn't help that his teammates weren't in the least sympathetic. Huang, by far, was the worst. Apparently, Huang didn't take missing his beauty sleep any better than Hei did. With each progressing day, the liaison got more and more ornery. Hei had discovered that Huang's face turned a lovely shade of plum purple when his blood pressure went up. He had a bet with Mao on how long it would take Huang to have an aneurysm. Hei gave him a week. Mao gave him two days.

Mao, on the other hand, was _too_ sympathetic. He claimed that since Hei wasn't getting enough sleep, he would rest for him. Mao spent the majority of his time passed out on his back, snoozing away while Hei was being shot at, bludgeoned, chased, burnt, sliced, punched, kicked, and otherwise physically assaulted.

Yin…well…that went without saying.

Camaraderie, indeed.

Hei continued to trudge his way back to his apartment building. He was getting close; he could just make out the sign on the stairs…

"Ah!"

Hei jumped and reached for his knife. He was about to yank it out and skewer whoever was idiotic enough to keep him from his rest when he finally registered what he was seeing.

Guy and Kiko stared back at Hei from their rather awkward position on a garbage can. Guy was leaning over Kiko, his leg squishing hers onto the side of the can, grabbing onto a fence with one hand. Kiko, on the other hand, had her arm wrapped around Guy's back. Her other hand appeared to be in an extremely inappropriate place in between Guy's legs. Needless to say, this was an awkward situation.

Hei stared, his mouth agape. Eventually, he managed to shut his mouth and clear his throat, a blush spreading across his face.

"I-I'm sorry," Hei apologized uncomfortably. He started to back away slowly. "I didn't mean to—"

"Nooooooo!" Kiko shoved Guy off of herself and flung herself at Hei.

"It'snotlikethatitisn'twhatyouthinkohmyGodIcan'tbelieveyousawthatit'ssoembarrassing!" Kiko babbled, her face turning beet-red. Hei stuttered and tried to separate himself from Kiko's death-grip on his waist.

"Can't…breath…." Hei wheezed. The cold, rational part of his brain idly wondered if he should just blow his cover and electrocute her. It was self-preservation, right?

"Kiko, Kiko," Guy pried his partner off of Hei, restraining her against his body. "Calm down; he's turning blue! Are you okay?"

Hei coughed and managed to nod weakly. Kiko had calmed down and was muttering under her breath. Her face now matched her hair and her face was scrunched up with embarrassment. Guy's face was also a bright pink, although not as bright as Kiko's.

Kiko sighed miserably, humiliated beyond words. She looked down…to see Guy's hand clutching her breast. She slowly raised her head and looked at her partner. Guy was loudly talking and laughing to a rather confused Hei in a failed attempt to explain the situation. He apparently hadn't noticed where his hand was.

"So that's what happened! It's absolutely not what you were thinking, unless you were thinking that it wasn't what I'm thinking, in which case that _would _be what you were thinking—" Guy paused and looked down at his partner. "Hey, Kiko, what's wrong?"

"You IDIOT!!!"

"…And so, that's what happened. Got it?"

Hei nodded uncertainly, completely confused. He was now sitting across from Guy and Kiko at a bar. Kiko was pouting and staring determinedly out the window. Guy was pressing a bag of ice against a shiner now decorating his left eye with one hand; his other hand was holding a napkin on his bleeding lip. Hei had been dragged along to the bar by Guy after he had managed to drag his beaten body off of the ground. He had tried to slip away, but it seemed Guy was determined to drag Hei along for the ride. It was to celebrate New Year's, apparently, but Hei doubted that. Hei had probably been forced to come only because Guy was broke. Again.

"Anyways, let's celebrate! It's New Year's Eve! We've gotta celebrate!" Guy exclaimed, his split lip making it a little difficult to understand him. "Please, order anything you want! My treat!"

"Uh…that's okay…" Hei waved his hands. "You don't have to do that. I really should get home, in any case—"

"Nonsense! Stay awhile!" Guy abruptly stood up and began waving frantically. "Hey, waitress! "

"No, I really should go—" Hei attempted to get up, only to be pushed back into his seat by Kiko.

"No, stay! We owe you at least this much for making you see that horrible scene," Kiko said. She turned her head slightly to the side and sighed dramatically. "I mean, you've probably been traumatized for life by seeing me in such an awkward position with that old guy."

"And I'd like a—hey! Who are you calling old?!" Guy whipped his head around to glare at Kiko, who stuck her tongue out at him.

Two hours later, both Kiko and Guy were completely smashed. Guy had jumped onto the table after about his fifth cup and had started bellowing songs at the top of his lungs. All attempts at getting him down had thus far failed, although he was showing amazingly good balance for a drunk. Kiko had yelled at Guy at first, but had progressed to singing along after her eighth drink.

Hei was looking nervously at Guy, who was now trying to jive to a horribly sung Tony Bennett (A/N: I'm sorry if I spelled it wrong!). Kiko was pounding on the table and screaming for an encore. Hei gulped and backed away quickly when Guy finally lost his balance and came down with an impressive 'thud'. Kiko snorted and laughed hysterically, banging on the table with both fists.

Hei edged closer to Guy, nudging his prone form with the toe of his sneaker. Guy made an odd noise somewhere between a snort and cough, then proceeded to snore loudly. Kiko was still shrieking with laughter. Hei looked around quickly. The bouncers had noticed their little scene and were coming over. They didn't look happy. Hei hauled Guy's limp arm over his shoulder and forced him up. He dumped some money on the table, grabbed Kiko sleeve with his other hand and proceeded to get the hell out of there.

Hei slumped against a wall and moaned quietly under his breath. Guy and Kiko were snoring away on the beds of the motel room Hei had booked for them. It had taken awhile before he had finally been able to find somewhere to dump them and Guy was _heavy_. Kiko had passed out sometime during the trip, forcing Hei to carry her piggy-back style.

Hei rubbed his forehead tiredly. Well, at least they wouldn't be bothering him for a while. The hangovers alone would keep those two out of action for days at least, if they didn't kill each other before then.

Hei pushed off the wall, and left quietly. Hopefully he might finally be able to catch some shut-eye.

Hei dragged his fatigued body up the steps to his apartment, bit by bit. He fumbled with the lock, cursing eloquently. Finally, it opened and he shoved it open. He quickly shut the door and locked up, heading straight for his futon and collapsing onto it. He was out in minutes.

Hei woke gradually, sluggishly sitting up. Or at least, he tried to. He peered down quickly at the heavy lump on his chest, only to be greeted with a long yawn.

Mao shook his head and licked his jowls. He leapt off of Hei and gave Hei a glare.

"What was that for? You ruined my nap," Mao complained. "I was just getting to the good part of my dream too…"

"Ah, what are you complaining about? You got more sleep than any of us this week!" Hei sat up fully and looked around.

There was a small table in the middle of his room, on which Huang was leaning against. An absurdly large amount of food was making the table sag slightly in the middle, with a few cups and chopsticks barely fitting onto the edge. Cushions had been brought and had been placed neatly around the table.

Hei blinked. "What…?"

"Just shut up and get your scrawny ass over here!" Huang beckoned to one of the cushions.

Hei blinked again. He walked over to the cushion and sat carefully down, keeping Huang in his periphery in case this was some weird sort of trick. Huang hated Contractors, but not _that_ much…right?

"What?! What's that look for?!" Huang pointed at Hei with a blunt finger. "You think this is some sort of trap, don't you? Well, it's not! I may hate your guts, but I'm not the sort of guy to play a dirty trick on someone like that!"

"Oh, right. Like you don't regularly trick the police," Mao sauntered over and plonked down next to Hei. "And other government agencies. You cheat at poker too."

"T-That's different!" Huang huffed and took a gulp of his drink. "Just shut up and eat. I didn't go through all the trouble of getting this food for you if you're not gonna eat."

"What are you doing here?" Hei asked. "How did you get in here, anyways?"

"It's a party, of course," Mao explained, licking a paw. "As for how we got in, we used the key we copied off of yours."

"…" Hei frowned. "Why are you throwing a party in my apartment?"

"We've been at missions all week and it's about time we all had a break," Huang leaned back. "You've been doing all of the dirty work, so the least we could do was get you some food."

Hei stared at Huang, unsure of whether or not to believe him.

"Aw, you _are_ a big softie!" Mao guffawed. "I guess you don't hate us Contractors that much after all—meow?!"

Huang glared at Mao, who had been hoisted up by the scruff. "Shut it, you little furball! I hate all of you freaks! And I am _not_ a softie! Gah, hey!" Mao meowed (A/N: Oh, the puns!) and clawed onto Huang's hand, forcing him to let go. Huang swatted at Mao, who dodged and scratched him.

Hei sighed and turned away from the ruckus to look at the last member of his team. Yin was sitting quietly, holding a cup of juice. Seeming to notice Hei's stare, Yin raised her head and turned her sightless eyes towards Hei. She smiled ever so slightly and offered Hei the cup.

Hei looked from Yin, to the cup, then back. He smiled faintly and accepted the cup.

"Happy New Years, Yin."

So, you like? Darker than Black is an awesome, awesome series. I highly recommend it if you haven't watched it already. The first DVD is out in North America and it's pretty good. It's got some production art and IMHO the English dub isn't bad. November 11 has the coolest accent _ever_!

Reviews are appreciated!


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